The art of putting your mouth where the money is



There is money in words. I am talking not about journalism, since few of its practitioners earn very much and most are, in any case, hopeless at keeping it. Nor do I mean bestselling fiction or books on how to cook, diet or be assertive. I am concerned with the spoken, not written, word: the world of public speaking. Tony Blair recently collected £180,000, not far short of a million dirhams, for two half-hour speeches delivered in Manila. He earned about the same in his annual salary as British prime minister and presumably took it on the chin when some of the newspapers, including The Times of London, reported with the merest hint of a sneer that his bons mots had included such gems as "politics really matters, but a lot of what goes on is not great", "politicians are a very strange people" and "helping people is a noble profession - but not noble to pursue".

Such earning power, by all accounts, makes the former British prime minister the world's highest paid public speaker. His wife, Cherie, also picks up some pin money on the circuit, though she must make do with £25,000 from each event. The couple's post-Downing Street prosperity came to mind as I read an article in the Aer Lingus in-flight magazine, Cara, on the art of public speaking. The Blairs were not mentioned; the author, Donal Cronin, the director of a communications company, dwelt instead on the oratory of US President Barack Obama and his success, in his inaugural address, in "capturing perfectly the mood and the moment".

Of course, public speaking is just part of the job of president. Mr Obama will have to leave office before he can turn his skills, and White House reminiscences, into a career. It is also true that for every individual capable of commanding a hefty fee, there will be thousands who are also called upon from time to time to stand up without payment at all and try to win the attention of others. My own speechmaking efforts have been modest: leaving parties (mine, and those of others who wished me to say a few words to bid them farewell), gatherings of French tourism chiefs, and a few schools and colleges. None of these brought me a penny. I had to wait until rather late in life for my first paid engagement and even then the fee was conditional on converting a 2,500-word speech into a written presentation at least three times as long.

To the few who can make a steady income from what they have to say after dinner or to conferences, I offer only congratulation. For the rest of us, the highest ambition when addressing audiences in connection with our work or interests is to avoid making fools of ourselves. Cronin's guide in Cara offered plenty of good advice on how to do so and also to ensure that listeners neither grimace nor nod off.

His rules are simple. He urges speakers to avoid protracted introductions and say something straight away that will grab everyone's attention; speak to a roomful of people as if talking to one person; exploit the "satisfying rhythm" of making points in threes; prefer everyday language to jargon; and find different ways of repeating important thoughts. Cronin is no great admirer of slide projectors, which suits me since I would feel uncomfortable using them. He does recommend rehearsing out loud more than once so that the speech is ultimately made using only a few cards outlining each main theme. I prefer either to speak without notes at all, or to prepare a transcript but mark points at which it may be possible to wander off on some interesting tangent.

With practice, someone who at first regards public speaking as an ordeal may be surprised at how effective he or she can become. Even when that level of competence is reached, however, it will still be too soon to send off a CV to PLDT, the telecommunications firm that sponsored Mr Blair's £6,000-a-minute effort in the Philippines. Colin Randall is a contributing editor to The National and can be contacted at crandall@thenational.ae

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Rating: 4/5

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

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The chef's advice

Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.

“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”

Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.

The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.